Michael E. Kreger is recognized internationally as a leader in reinforced concrete structures and earthquake engineering. His research, which has resulted in more than 150 technical publications, has focused on earthquake resistance and rehabilitation of structural concrete buildings, behavior of pre- and post-tensioned concrete bridge structures and durability of structural concrete. His work has been recognized… Read more about Dr. Michael E. Kreger

Storm shelters are an expensive and time-consuming add-on when building a home. To save time and money, sometimes homeowners and builders skimp on the protection they provide from high-winds from tornadoes or hurricanes. What if a homeowner could have the protection at a more affordable price? Answering that question is… Read more

Could homeowners have protection from high winds at a more affordable price than traditional storm shelters provide? Answering that question is the goal of research inside an innovative University of Alabama lab designed to help the construction and insurance industries. Read more

University of Alabama students and faculty broke out some big guns to test FEMA approved storm shelter wall panels. They fired 2x4s from a debris cannons to study the stability of the panels to withstand storm debris impact. “If we can come up with a cheaper way to construct these… Read more

In the entire political realm, perhaps no arena illustrates this gap between rhetoric and reality more starkly than infrastructure repair and replacement: Politicians regularly opine about the need to rebuild America and produce millions of jobs in the process … Michael Kreger, an award-winning professor of civil engineering at the… Read more

The earth shakes millions of times every year. Often, these earthquakes strike in familiar places, such as the recent, deadly quakes in Ecuador and Japan. At other times, a quake may hit in a spot less familiar with the temblors, such as the magnitude-5.8 earthquake that struck Virginia in 2011 and damaged the Washington Monument. Historic… Read more

It seems like an unlikely collaboration when it comes to earthquakes: the University of Alabama and NASA. After all, NASA is more commonly associated with the space program, and Alabama isn’t an area notorious for recent, devastating seismic activity. However, NASA is testing what’s known as disruptive tuned mass technology… Read more

A routine trip to run errands almost cost Katherine Dean her life. In February, just as Ms. Dean, of suburban Maryland, drove underneath a bridge on the Capital Beltway, a large chunk of concrete fell from the structure, crushing the hood of her car and smashing the windshield. Read more

Maryland’s top transportation official on Thursday ordered immediate inspections of 27 aging, state-owned bridges after a chunk of concrete fell on a Prince George’s County woman’s car from the bottom of the Interstate 495 overpass in Morningside… Michael Kreger, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Alabama who has… Read more